Life Goes On, Or Does It?
by bluestarryskies
Summary: PostNo Reason, what if House had died? What would the lives of his colleagues be like. No pairings intended, unless you’re squinting. Possible character death. Meant to be short, drabble style. Ch. 2 Chase is revised
1. Prologue: The Funeral

Life Goes On-Or Does It?

**AN: I have never been to the New Jersey area, and so any locations I have in this may be inaccurate. I did do some research as to what is around the Princeton University area, and so all of these locations do exist, just I have no idea if they're around the supposed location of PPTH (which is a fictional hospital, according to my research) after all.**

**AN2: This is meant to be short. I apologize. Each chapter is about 600 words or so. I am horrible at creative writing, and this is my first attempt at a fanfic. Critique is welcome, but no flames please.**

**Disclaimer: Despite me wanting to, I do not own House, which belongs to Fox, David Shore, and all those other people. Not me. I do not own any of these songs/lyrics either. I'd be rich though. ha.**

Prologue-The Funeral

House's funeral was held the week after his death. Despite his aloofness and unfriendliness toward the hospital staff, an amazing amount of co-workers and colleagues showed up to say their goodbyes. Sitting in the front row of the church were the ones closest to him: his ducklings, Cuddy, and Wilson.

Cameron, as usual, was unable to control her emotions and was sobbing through the whole ceremony, while Chase made futile attempts to comfort her. Foreman, doing his best to maintain his usual tough-guy image, did his best to hide that he was shocked with House's death. Despite their boss's attitude toward each of them, House's death dealt a huge blow to each of the ducklings.

Cuddy, to the surprise of the ducklings, had tears running down her cheeks as well. She never realized until now just how much she truly cared for her trouble-maker diagnostician. Wilson seemed to be lost in thought, staring off into a faraway distance. He appeared to have aged greatly in the one week after his friend's death, and was incapable of doing anything without Cuddy's and the ducklings' help. Much like a child on his first day of kindergarten, Wilson appeared lost and vulnerable without House with him.

Sitting in the back, hoping to be unnoticed, was Stacy, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. She had originally wanted Mark to attend as well, for support, but decided against it, considering the past between House and Mark. Much like Wilson, she was lost in thought as well, _what would life be like if she still lived with House? Would he be nicer to patients with her influence? _And the most pressing question of all, _would he still be alive today?_ A glittering drop brimmed over, and she impatiently swept it away, knowing the past was the past, there was nothing she could do to change it anymore.

As the priest said his final words, Cuddy slowly stood up and headed toward the lectern for her part of the funeral. Looking at the dozens of colleagues that showed up, Cuddy was unable to withstand the overwhelming grief and amazement at how many showed up to say goodbye. Breaking down, she fell to the floor and was moved by the ducklings to a separate room, with Cameron's feeble attempts to comfort her.

After Cuddy had managed to recover enough, all five of them followed the hearse carrying House to the cemetery on hospital grounds, where he could be as close to the place where he had worked countless hours to save many patients. Fitting his personality, the weather was slightly overcast with some drizzle and occasional bursts of sun. After the casket was lowered into the ground, the ducklings placed his cane on top, and the hole was filled.

Nobody was in much of a mood to go out together in a group, and each returned to their own homes to think about the time spent with House and what the future would have in store for them.

_August evenings  
Bring solemn warnings  
To remember to kiss the ones you love goodnight_-Thin Paper Hymn, Anberlin

----


	2. Chapter 1 Cameron

**AN: **Thank you so much for all of the reviews:) Thanks to Dyslexic Crayon for pointing out a mistake about the Stacy-House relationship.

**AN2:** I realize this may be a bit out of character for Cameron. She was never one of my favorites, so I didn't go into detailed analysis on her personality, sorry to Cameron lovers out there.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own House nor any lyrics/songs used in this fanfic.

Ch 1- Cameron

Over the next few months, Cameron attended multiple sessions with a psychiatrist outside of the hospital. Taking the advice of the psychiatrist, Cameron stopped working for a few weeks, contemplating what her next step should be. While the loss of House was not exactly the same as losing her husband, House had seemed like an older brother in a way. Teasing her, causing her to be frustrated at times, yet she could tell that he cared about her in his own odd and aloof way.

Sitting by the Plainsboro Pond, Cameron had a hard time deciding whether or not to remain a part of the diagnostic team. Her specialty being in immunology, she was mainly confined to running lab tests on samples from patients and their homes. After weeks of careful thought and planning, Cameron now had a sense of what her purpose was to be.

"I want to go back to school."

That one sentence to Cuddy's ears was another impact. She had lost House from the diagnostic team, and now Cameron wanted to leave?

"But I plan on studying diagnostics and maybe a bit of ethics."

This was a relief to Cuddy, and approved Cameron's decision to return to schooling with Cameron's promise to return to the diagnostic department when she had graduated. Cameron wanted to continue House's work of saving patients, but with a softer side and a more ethical approach than House did in the past. While House had care somewhere in that harsh outward appearance of his, Cameron wanted to appear more caring and in touch with the patients, hoping for better cooperation and an avoidance of what had caused the shooting. Had House been kinder to that woman and her spouse, he would have been alive today and grousing about how the ducklings were inept without him and teasing Wilson about his many marriages.

With the support of all of her colleagues, Cameron moved into the dormitories on the campus at Princeton nearby, so she could work part-time during breaks and continue her schooling. Having found her purpose, Cameron could now let go of the grief she had, and celebrate who House truly was and carry on his legacy as the genius diagnostician in her own way.

_Speak to me, when all you got to keep is strong  
Move along, move along like I know you do  
And even when your hope is gone  
Move along, move along just to make it through_ – Move Along, All-American Rejects


	3. Chapter 2 Chase

Thanks to all of the reviewers for the last two chapters. :)

**AN:** I'm feeling a bit under the weather, with a cold in June. Yes, a cold in June. Anyways, I might not have another chapter up until the weekend, sorry about that. I also have something evil called "AP Government Summer Reading". It's really, really fun, I assure you. And I'm terribly sorry, I uploaded the wrong copy the first time around, thanks to Sara Wolfe for pointing it out (sort of) to me by asking what Chase was going to do next. Heh. I need to clean up my computer.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own House, any of its characters, or any of the songs/lyrics I use in this fanfic.

Ch. 2-Chase

The wombat. Always known as the wombat to House, Chase was starting to turn into one. Staying in bed all day until night, he rarely was seen on the floor with the diagnostics department. When Chase did come to work, it was mainly in NICU, a comforting place for him.

As he listened to the steady beeping at night while working the late shift, Chase thought about the past few weeks and the nightmares he had gone through after losing another person in his life. He was hard hit by his father's recent death. Unprepared for the fact that his father was fighting cancer, and losing quickly to it, the death hit Chase suddenly and led to a bout of depression.

Surely House's death would cause the same problem. Already noticing the first signs of depression, Chase contemplated seeing a psychiatrist like Cameron was doing, but decided against letting anyone pry into his private life. Sighing, Chase attended to a newborn, checking her vitals to ensure she was as healthy as a preemie could be.

Satisfied that the preemie was doing well, Chase sat down and went back to his thoughts. Had House not been there during the hearings for support, Chase would have surely broken down from combined depression and stress over the accidental death of a patient due to his own distraction. Unfortunately, there wasn't a House anymore to poke fun at him, ensuring in House's own way that his little wombat was not falling into the pit of severe depression.

What Chase was most afraid of was hurting a preemie during this bout of depression. He did not want to repeat what had happened last time, especially since there wasn't a House anymore to help defend him. Chase owed House his job. Despite Chase's betrayal to Vogler, House continued to allow Chase remain on the team. For this, Chase had always been thankful, but neither showed that they cared for each other.

Chase had originally thought about returning to the seminary in Australia. He had been hurt too much with his work at PPTH, with patients lying all the time, people suffering, and the loss of House. But his thoughts always returned to how his time with House and the other ducklings brought companionship, banishing his loneliness. Had he remained at the seminary, Chase would have been lonely for the majority of his time. Here in PPTH, there was never a dull moment.

A sudden erratic beeping came from the corner and the night shift nurses ran to attend to the preemie with Chase at the head. Evidently it was all a false alarm, somehow the baby had become unattached to one of the many wires attached to him, and the monitor had lost the reading. Chase thought about how much this preemie was much like House. An active little one for his size, the preemie had jerked in his movements, causing the misreading. House was in a way, active as well. Never able to sit in one place without playing with something in his hand, like his dear tennis ball, House preferred to remain busy and active to the best of his abilities despite the infarction. Reattaching the wire, Chase murmured softly to the preemie, giving it comfort and the feeling that someone was out there, watching for him and giving him companionship.

Resettling back into his seat for the umpteenth time that night, Chase stared off into the night and felt a sense of belonging; here in NICU he could truly help those alone in their separate incubators, to have a sense of companionship. This was where he best fit in. And so with the steady accompanying rhythm of the monitors, Chase slowly drifted off to sleep.

_Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend  
Somewhere along in the bitterness  
And I would have stayed up with you all night  
Had I known how to save a life_ – How to Save a Life, The Fray


End file.
